Cohen plunges into his 40-year-old memories about how awful it was when the National Guard shot and killed 4 college students who were protesting the Vietnam War. And naturally, in Cohen's bike-drained, folk-music befuddled brain, that leads to what's wrong with... Glenn Beck!

Why don't you see? Back in 1970, the Governor of Ohio said the protesters were "worse than the Brownshirts and the communist element. . . . We will use whatever force necessary to drive them out of Kent." Cohen weaves his literary magic for us dogged old WaPo readers:

That was the language of that time. And now it is the language of our time. It is the language of Glenn Beck, who fetishizes about liberals...

... fetishizes about liberals... To "fetishize" is to make a fetish of. How do you make a fetish ofabout something? Cohen's rugged bike path is studded with incomprehensible prepositions.

... and calls Barack Obama a racist. It is the language of rage...

What language? You didn't even quote anything from Beck. Maybe you created a Pandora channel for Beck and you listen and ideate furiously while cycling, but I don't know what you're talking about. I don't pay much attention to the pudgy chattering TV pundit, but he doesn't seem to be raging. I have seen him crying. And oddly, in Cohen's first paragraph, he portrays himself struggling (while biking) to "repress a tear" when Neil sings "Ohio." Oh, compassion! It either builds credibility or it doesn't. (Depending on whether you're liberal or conservative.)

And no, Richard Cohen doesn’t catch the irony: The dissent of Kent State protesters, he thinks, was met with deadly force because of rhetoric that “otherized them,” that turned them into a domestic enemy. Pretty much exactly what Richard Cohen is doing to the dissidents of the Tea Party movement.

You would never know from the likes of Cohen that Glenn Beck has not only apologized for saying that Obama dislikes white people, he's even made his retraction the subject for at least one show.

I disagreed with Beck's now recanted assertion back when he first made it, but I can see how 20+ years in the pew listening to Rev Wright could make folks wonder about the President's earlier views on race relations.

Apparently Beck is harking back to the Mormon White Horse Prophecy that states when the Constitution hangs on a thread, as Beck likes to say, the Mormon Church will step in to save the day, and what better way to hasten the day than to script those on the left as evil while encouraging folks to take matters into their own hands. Language repeats itself with a twist?

I'm a bit younger than Richard Cohen, and was actually in college when the students were killed at Kent State. Many of my fellow demonstrators/rioters believed that the revolution was coming, baby. As we grew up, most of us came to understand that America was actually a remarkably good and stable society, and that it ranked pretty well among all the other imperfect nations on earth. "Ohio" was not a turning point, it was just a terrible aberration. Now we contest among ourselves with duelling rallies, not with riots or killings, and somehow aging writers think this is a bad thing. Compare the entirely peaceful tea parties and socialist rallies with the way people express dissatisfaction in other parts of the world before you make remarks about the awfulness of contemporary discourse.

In the 60's "Richard Cohen" didn't remember the 60s... "Richard Cohen" remembered The Great War, and the Depression, and World War Two.

In the 1960's "Richard Cohen" didn't remember 4 students who were shot... "Richard Cohen" remembered trench warfare and sickness and hunger and WAR and probably dozens of personal acquaintances who died of bullets and sepsis, maybe at Normandy.

But Richard Cohen remembers the 60s, even if he doesn't understand the context other than his own.

And amazingly, he assigns the role *opposing* the protesters to those who are protesting today against the establishment.

Don't misunderstand me to say that I don't think that BO doesn't play with race antagonism when it suits his purposes, but the operative terms here are HIS PURPOSES.

What I disagreed about with Beck is that a dislike of white people explains the thought and life of BO, just like I disagree with Dinesh D'Souza that BO adopted the third world anti-colonialism of his father as his own.

I think that the most telling words out of BO mouth was that people used him as a projection screen to see what they wanted to see in him. Throughout his life, he used this chameleon persona to manipulate those around him.

I think any and all of his principles were stepping stones in the rise to the top of BO, and such principles as he had were adopted and discarded as needed.

You're missing my point, which is that Cohen doesn't make the case for "hateful words fired like bullets." He needs quotes in the article, quotes other than the old quote from the Ohio governor and the old Neil Young song. Where is the hate?

GOD!!! I am so sick of the 60's, the people who still wallow in the 60's, who hold out that time as some sort of shining wonderful mostest bestest specialist event in the history of mankind EVAH!!

I wish they would all just realize that their time on the stage is long past. I think we need one of those big hooks that they used in vaudeville times to remove the stinkers from the stage.

I can say all of this because I AM a child of the 60's (Born in 1950) and have some very different, and not so rosy, memories of those times.

That there were some significant changes in society is true. It isn't necessarily true that those changes were good. The music was great (even some of Cohen's stuff) and there were some good ideas born in those times. The music can still be good and some of the ideas can still be good. Unfortunately, some of the music has morphed into gansta rap and the ideas have deformed into monstrosities that we will have to drive a stake through the heart or shoot with silver bullets to get rid of.

It was a very good song. Great lyrics but as a high school grad of 1970, I don't recall the incident being huge to me and my peers....it was like young loud college kids exempt from military draft and hoping to avoid Vietnam get shot by young nervous national guard soldiers also hoping to avoid Vietnam.

hawkeyedjb:" "Ohio" was not a turning point, it was just a terrible aberration. Now we contest among ourselves with duelling rallies, not with riots or killings, and somehow aging writers think this is a bad thing. Compare the entirely peaceful tea parties and socialist rallies with the way people express dissatisfaction in other parts of the world before you make remarks about the awfulness of contemporary discourse."

Yes, but these peaceful rallies are just safety-valves for dissatisfaction. The military-industrial-congressional complex will roll on, and anyone elected this term will simply be subsumed by its momentum.

Since Obama took office, it's been Acorn, New Black Panthers, Shirley Sherrod, "Wise Latina," Michelle's big ass, witchdoctor emails, Lyin' African. And plentiful howls about "Liberals are racists." WHO is doing the race-baiting? I think that you can argue that it's not just Obama-- if you can even describe HOW Obama is race-baiting, besides the fact that he's not white, which is bait enough for a lot of people.

"I'm not saying he doesn't like white people," Beck said. "I'm saying he has a problem. He has a -- this guy is, I believe, a racist."

Obama is a racist. The only thing beating back that reality is Political Correctness - which only exists to kill the truth. It's obvious white guilt can work almost any way racist blacks want - either whites can be guilty or not - depending on the spin. Beck has to be wrong because, from the very beginning, liberals made it off-limits to bring up Obama's 20 years with Jeremiah Wright, his racist (and communist) god father, his NewAge mother's teachings, and what Bill Ayers dedicated his violent life to, which - for all of them - the election of a valueless sleaze, like Barack Obama, was always part and parcel of. The man is a racist - and worst.

This last period (2005-Present) been the Left's Age of Charlatanism, and conservative's unwillingness to tell the truth under pressure - whether to appease the rabid dogs or to save your own skins - has been the only determinant of integrity:

Beck has some, in my opinion, but not enough. He loves to hide behind "I criticized President Bush" when, in hindsight, there wasn't much to criticize Bush for (and Beck's admission means he played a role in creating the wrong-headed, lopsided view many hold of the Bush Administration today.)

I don't know if I'm being clear, so I'll leave you with this:

If you wanna talk how PC and racism in America work, call me when any of Barack Obama's serious black critics gets some major, regular, face time in the media, instead of this endless parade of white spokespeople who are scared, of whatever racial issues come up, being challenged on PC grounds.

Then I'll know we've taken that next step to ridding ourselves of what ails us.

You're on the ramp going over the shark pen, there Fonz. Forget the presidency thus far. On the campaign trail he made at least two mentions, that I remember, about catching hell from the other side because he didn't look like the faces on money.

It is amazing how protesting is wonderful and progressive when done by those who with whom you agree, becomes something evil and fascist when it is done by Tea Party protesters. Protest A....goood. Protest B....bad and must be shut down. The leftists like Cohen never seem to see the hypocrisy or contradition in their own thought processes.

It'll be a while - they bred. Ever notice there's not been one honest movie about what a strain the Baby Boom has been on the rest of us? How all their wrong calls affected society? What it's like waiting for them to die?

You realize that when you call Obama a racist, you are also saying that he is black, right?

Patently ridiculous. The definition of racist, scholarly or otherwise, has nothing to do with the skin color of the perpetrator. My sarcasm filter is a little under the weather, MM, so you'll have to either back up that claim or admit to irony otherwise I'll just have to start taking you less seriously as a commenter.

The clip linked above stops short, but did not Beck go on to say, in a sort of ruminative way, that Obama might [reasonably] be called a "racist" because, as Deborah mentions above, he keeps playing the race card for advantage, even when not particularly apposite for the subject at hand?Such as his recent remark at one of his "backyard barbecues" that "it took time to free the slaves?"

And I think d'Souza is off base, because I do not see how Obama can remember much from his father or know Kenya in the emotional sense. People forget that his mother was a -50's flowerchild who went off to Indonesia with him and married an Indonesian, so that is the environment Obama survived in until he was 10 years old and was sent to Hawaii to live with his grandparents - the parents of that flowerchild. Indonesia had then quite recently emerged from a violent nationalist/communist revolution resulting from the collapse of the rather nasty colonial empire the Dutch had been running there for a couple of centuries, following WWII. Obama's attitudes must certainly have been affected by that experience and by the politics of his mother and grandparents, but I do not think that his father or Kenya have much to do with it.

MM, we can do the whole bigotry vs racism (opinion vs action), or you can just explain how your most recent definition of racism jives with your earlier statement about calling Obama black if one calls him a racist.

I have no idea if he's a bigot or a racist. Seems to me the racism thing would be easier to prove because any action taken by the president usually becomes public knowledge. I think it's reasonable to say there is both bigotry and racism at play in the DOJ, on the other hand.

MM,Racism does not have to be "against" anyone; just that you tend to think of issues in terms of "us" and "them" as determined by perceived divisions of "race."

Crack and Pat,Obama - or someone - indeed wrote a couple of books in which his father is prominently featured. I have not read them either, so exactly what he - or that someone - wrote, I do not know, but these were written as part of his political campaign and should be viewed as such.

Althouse, I've watched Beck twice, I think. Maybe it is a blackboard. He likes to chart out causal connections - I was thinking of that reading your description of Cohen's linking his "40-year-old memories" to what's wrong with Beck..the language of that time, the language of our time..yada yada. It brought the visual image of a Beckian blackboard to mind.

Seems Cohen learned the wrong lesson. It's not Republicans or Democrats that shoot people. The lesson is more complex than that. Although, the shootings at Kent State were the result of a series of bad decisions and misjudgements as much as anything.

Those of us willing to call ourselves conservatives, libertarians or Tea Partiers are "finally on our own" though. Lefties wish death and destruction upon us daily.

Merely having your disagreements on policy chalked up to racism makes one a victim of sorts, doesn't it, MM? It's an attempt to marginalize political opposition without a serious debate and with malicious intent.

Very few adults in this country are unaware of the weight an accusation of "racism", however misapplied, carries.

Of course, and a majority of those would oppose Obama. ( I do know of one older Democrat who opposed Obama in the primaries because he was black, but supports him now because even a black man is better than a Republican. )

My take is that Cohen, like most, fails the curiosity test. He fails to ask *why*?

Why are the tea partiers angry? Like so many on either side and no side - people spend inordinate amounts of time supporting or condemning *what* others are doing - but little or no time trying to understand "why".

It seems to me that the tea partiers, republicans and lots of moderates and independents have been told that they just have to *eat* whatever the left shovels out - *because* the left won. "we won!" - therefore - whether you like it or not - whether it helps or not - whether it works or not - whether ot goes against everything you believe or not - you have to *eat it*. It seems to me that that is the message of the Obama administration and the dem Congress. We won - so fuck you.

Of course - people are angry about that. Of course they feel alienated - like the don't have a voice or even that they don't belong. Cohen seems, to me, like so many others to be saying, "look at how angry they are - that could be dangerous" - without looking at why.

Ignorance is Bliss-- do you believe that anti-black racism exists, anywhere?

Sure - go on - ask the expert. Like I said, you guys will scramble to hear white folks talk about anything, even when there's black people around who could clarify shit.

What's it matter if there's an anti-black bigot somewhere? Does he have any effect on my life? And how does the fact he's outnumbered by blacks, who hate his guts more, figure into your vision?

And ponder this:

I live someplace where, I was told, everyone white is supposed to be racist - but the whites have made my life better than I've expected, with no racial animosity what-so-ever. They're just nice, well-raised, let-me-hold-the-door-for-you "folks".

This is after I moved away from the multi-cultural crowd, who told me my new home sucked, because they wouldn't stop harping on racism and making my life miserable by conniving of ways that, and demanding - demanding - I had to get with the program.

Cohen writes:It is all this talk about "taking back America" (from whom?) and this inchoate fury at immigrants and, of course, this raw anger at Muslims, stoked by politicians such as Newt Gingrich and Rick Lazio, the latter having lost the GOP primary to Paladino for, among other things, not being sufficiently angry.

Goodness, someone certainly has a dependency on commas.

I'm a teaparty type and I really resent that liberals never make the distinction that we are upset about the number of ILLEGALimmigrants. It bothers me a lot that our Federal Government seems feckless when it comes to securing our borders.

I think the point you are making about Obama is even worse. You are essentially saying that we have a president now who does not believe in anything and who stands for nothing. What then would keep him from whatever floats his boat at any given time no matter the consequences and is this what we really want in someone in that office and with that power. Makes me want him out of there right now - toute suite!!

What he has actually experienced is Djakarta, which has to have been difficult for him, since the Indonesians have little love for either Africans or Europeans, and Hawaii.That does not keep him from hearing from his mother, reading about Kenya, and making up a story for himself that he actually believes preferentially to the reality - this sort of thing is quite common, especially when you have had an unhappy childhood - but it should be viewed with some scepticism, especially when presented as a prelude to a political campaign.

Ignorance-- I have never seen it personally, experienced it myself, or heard about it anecdotally from anyone who didn't have an axe to grind. I'm sure it exists somewhere, though. I'm just not sure that the level of anti-white racism in this country justifies the disgusting attitude of victimhood adopted by conservative grievance-mongers in the country today, especially since Obama's election. Positively vomitous.

Also, it's simply adorable to hear about discrimination in the form of affirmative action in hiring for GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS from the government that should supposedly be abolished. Reminds me of "keep the government out of my medicare" and the legions of tea partiers who enjoy government benefits.

(The Crypto Jew)Also, it's simply adorable to hear about discrimination in the form of affirmative action in hiring for GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS from the government that should supposedly be abolished. Not surprisingly a lie from Monty…find a TEA Party person that says “government should be abolished.” The phrase that is used, and terrifies you is “Reduced”.

I think the people at Freddy's Fashionmart might be able to point out a little anti-white prejudice, but that's just me.

Also, it's simply adorable to hear about discrimination in the form of affirmative action in hiring for GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS from the government that should supposedly be abolished. Reminds me of "keep the government out of my medicare" and the legions of tea partiers who enjoy government benefits.

Last I checked Medicare benefits were administered without regard to race, national origin, etc. I love it when some leftie makes a bullshit, off-base comparison to make a point.

I have never seen it personally, experienced it myself, or heard about it anecdotally from anyone who didn't have an axe to grind.

Then you've lived a very sheltered life. I have experienced it personally, though in a fairly mild form.

I'm not a victim, as most tea party supporters are not, because we don't want to live life that way. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to right wrongs when we see them.

...from the government that should supposedly be abolished.

I'm not sure why you you're bringing anarchists into this discussion. Okay, that was a lie. I know exactly why you are bringing anarchists into this discussion: because strawmen are so much easier to battle than real people with real concerns about the direction of the country.

Not surprisingly a lie from Monty…find a TEA Party person that says “government should be abolished.”

That would be anarchists, Monty, not the Tea Party. You're usually much more cogent than what's on display today, MM. No Wheaties this morning?

Oh, and for the record, I grew up on the south side of Chicago in the vast minority of white kids in my neighborhood and school. Black racism didn't rear it's ugly head (racism is always ugly regardless of the source, is it not?) until I was well into high school.

As a 14-year-old, I had no axe to grind and I was raised by a career soldier who doesn't have a bigoted bone in his body. No axe inherited either. On this issue, either you're too sheltered, too ignorant, or too ironclad to ideology to realize the truth.

And, to prove everything I say about them - specifically about how they can't tell the truth and they have a fascistic streak - expect some of their supporters to lie and smear about this comment. No one's ever been able to refute any of the dozens of posts at that link, all the partiers can do is smear, lie, and play dress-up games like little kids.

all the partiers can do is smear, lie, and play dress-up games like little kids.

That's not all they can do. They can unseat incumbents as well and have already done so. If they do what I hope they will do, they will peal the hardline social conservatives hands from around the nexts of the very word "conservative". That would be no small feat in and of itself.

According to the SDS/Weathermen, 4 dead in Ohio was a pretty good start.

Former Weathermen leader William Ayers and his wife hosted the launch of Obama's career right in their posh living room. This is the same Bernardine Dohrn who said: "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach. Wild."

I recommended you, Ann, for senior editor at Instapundit. Get your resume ready.

As for Richard Cohen, it's nice that he still rides a bicycle, but wearing earphones while doing so could get him in trouble.

Otherwise, I don't need anymore liberals hating conservatives for being hateful. Does he think that we all celebrate the deaths at Kent State? That's slandering a lot of people, but I guess that nursing 40 year old grudges is all that's left to aging libs these days. Anything to stoke the hate.

"Yes, I don't consider BO a racist, per se, but will use race-baiting as a tool when called for."

Sooo, O's not a racist because when he spews racist crap he doesn't really mean it? This doesn't seem like a very useful definition of a racist.

By his words and his actions I'd peg O as the biggest racist we've had in the Oval Office since Wilson. I don't believe that I have to hate either O. or Wilson to point that out, any more than I have to hate salt water to point out that it's corrosive. The available evidence indicates that the statement is true; hate doesn't have anything to do with it.

Like I said and as you can see above, the 'partiers are dolts who lie and smear.

For an example of intelligently opposing Obama, before the election I posted 20 non-partisan reasons to oppose Obama. That got no support from r/w bloggers, despite how making those points could have peeled off independent voters. Instead, r/w bloggers spent their days in echo chambers, trying to convince those who'd already been convinced. Now, that's stupid.

Anti-colonialists seek reparations for former colonies of Western Europe. Except America and Canada.

So in their mind America owes all of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America because of the ways that America treated these countries like colonies.

Eastern Europe is OK, because Russia was communist and that gets a pass. Look at the President's foreign policy, what you can make of it, to see how he favors "former colonies" over Western European countries.

here you have this marvelous resource, and drawing on all the power of the intertubes, you construct a channel that puts an overplayed top 40 tune into heavy rotation.....that tells me all I need to know about Mr. Cohen

I started showing up at Tea Party rallies in May of 2009 for very good reasons.

But forty years before that, I was helping organize anti-Vietnam War rallies and marches at my university, including a march the week following the Kent State killings.

Texas Rangers were on the rooftops with their rifles that day, and we felt the KS shootings had given them a signal to do the same if prodded. And the city refused to issue us a permit, so we were having to ensure tens of thousands of people would stay off the streets, walk two-by-two on the sidewalks and obey street signal crossings, laughably impossible.

As an organizer, it was terrifying, it seemed inevitable that the Rangers would get their reason to shoot, and for me personally, since I would be compelled to stay and help others, it might be my day to die.

That was the day I learned that I was willing to die for my country, too, much like every dear American soldier, and I have never forgotten it.*

Between then and now, I have stayed awake -- First Gulf War, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- while it seems many of my fellows became Rip Van Winkle and what they learned in 69-70 was their scripture never to be questioned again, no military use ever.

* Mercifully, about a half hour into it, the word went out that the city had changed their vote to allow the march on the streets. The rifles lifted to point up and away, and we all surged into the streets for the most peaceful, tearful, moving march of all I witnessed.

montaigne wrote:"No one is discriminating against you because you're white. You are not a victim."

Where have you been living the past 40 years. Most people I know (in New York City) have been discriminated against at one time or another for being white, in being passed over for hiring or promotion, in being unfairly disciplined in school, even in being pushed out of jobs. I don't claim that it's "ruined my life." I don't claim that the total effect makes it worse to be white than black in the US. But facts is facts. Every time a black person gets preference on the grounds of race, non-black people are discriminated against.

And of course many white subcultures in the US are constantly ridiculed in the media, in ways that absolutely never happen with non-white cultures.

Between then and now, I have stayed awake -- First Gulf War, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- while it seems many of my fellows became Rip Van Winkle and what they learned in 69-70 was their scripture never to be questioned again, no military use ever.

I think it was the late Daniel Shorr of NPR who once wrote of how he -- a dedicated pacifist and Vietnam War opponent -- became convinced that war was sometimes necessary. In an editorial supporting the invasion of Afghanistan (if I recall correctly), he wrote of what he learned during the Balkan wars: that sometimes if you refuse to fight the bad people, they'll kill all the innocents, and there will be no one left to embrace peace.

His revelation was a little obvious to some; but it shows that some people do outgrow their naivete eventually.

Endtimes67, if Person A saying Person B is racist equates to "hateful words fired like bullets" then Jesse and Al are in big trouble.

As for the "Tea Party leads to Kent State" meme, I am surprised you omitted the single biggest flaw in this thesis: who controls the guns? Last I checked, Glenn Beck (and his ilk) has no authority at all over the National Guard, police, feds, military, etc. The folks that do, however, constantly beat that "Tea Partiers are dangerous to the Constitution and a breeding ground for extremists" rhetoric.

If Cohen were sincerely concerned about a Kent State repeat he might pay closer attention to what those in power are saying about those who disagree with them instead of doing his part to stoke the fire.

Chamberlain and Kilrain approached the headquarters on foot. Their dirty and worn uniform was mud spattered and bedraggled. They looked like they had been chasing a black dog in the rain.

A crispy uniformed Lieutenant was standing on the porch holding two truly ugly dogs on a leash. They were exceeding rare. Some sort of Spaniel. He looked the weary Colonel up and down and shook his head.

“Can I help you Colonel” he said with his lip curling in a faint moue of disdain.“I need to see General Meade” Chamberlain said.“I am afraid the General is indisposed. He is not available right now. In fact no one has heard from him for days. Can I inform him of something?”“Yes. I just came from the Little Round Tops. I think the enemy is going to make a move on them. They are going to charge right up the middle and try to penetrate our lines.”The Lieutenant gave a little snort “I doubt very much that there will be any penetration sir. Of that you may be sure.”“But I know that that is where the attempt will come” “You know what they call General Meade Sir? The General who has not been penetrated. That is what President Lincoln terms him sirrah. I think it might be best if you return to your men.”“Come along Colonel Darling,” whispered Kilrain as he tugged on the Colonels rain soaked tunic “nothing good can come of this. They will never heed the likes of us.”

I have seen him crying. And oddly, in Cohen's first paragraph, he portrays himself struggling (while biking) to "repress a tear" when Neil sings "Ohio." Oh, compassion! It either builds credibility or it doesn't. (Depending on whether you're liberal or conservative.)

This was the passage in which Althouse declares her ignorance of GB's penchant for using Vicks Vapor Rub the way the ancients used smelling salts.

Fisking you is like shooting fish in a barrel. Does the concept of accuracy scare you or something?

Glenn Beck would have been in kindergarten when Ohio happened. Obama in third grade. Rather than drawing a coherent parallel, Cohen is projecting his past associations rather dramatically over present time reality. It's very common.

I know that he uses Vicks to make himself cry from a video. Something that Althouse apparently didn't know.

I know you hate liberals for being more progressive, Alex. But it's not like they invented video in an evil conspiracy to deny conservatives a political voice, aside from perhaps Nixon in 1960.

Watch the video, my friendly little scrum. And then tell me that Althouse isn't perpetuating ignorance by taking the clown at his word.

We already knew he was completely ignorant of any history - but apparently he knows enough chemistry to artificially induce lacrimation on demand. If you find this doesn't make him any less genuine or worthy of listening to in your book, well, then you're on your own.

As to Mr. Cohen’s fantasies about the good ole’ ‘Sixties’, perhaps he wouldn’t be so wistful if he read the competition. Specifically: "New light shed on Kent State killings" Washington Times, 4 May 2010.

Oh and about those Hippies? "We're on the Cusp". Google 'So Long Hippies (Just Not Soon Enough)'

He doesn't look like the white people I work with, or my friends, or even most of the people I see on TV - except on the Sunday news shows (which I rarely watch) where I can see a George Will or somesuch.

Anyway, what's up with that? I remember when I was in Europe, they always seemed to have the impression guys like this Cohen doofus were what made up American men. I was different - "too macho" they said - while I was wondering why everybody was such a puss.

So is there a name for this kind of guy, or what? Is he the famous WASP I'm always hearing so much about? Help!

First off, Richard Cohen has no love for Crosby, Stills, or Nash? After all, they collaborated on the song as well.

The funny thing is Cohen says “On my bike, I recalled those days and wondered if they have not returned. Sticks and stones may break bones, but words--that singsong rebuttal notwithstanding--can kill.”

While what happened at Kent State was a tragedy, it wasn't words that caused it. The protesters broke rule #1. "Don't throw rocks at dudes with guns." Unfortunately they learned the hard way, and innocent bystanders got caught up too.

Are you really that stupid? That was a video for a magazine photo shoot, most likely the GQ one where he's satirizing his own persona as a crybaby.

Liberals are really living in bizzaro world right now where their brains automatically ignore obvious context in order to confirm in their own minds how terrible and phoney their enemies are.

Seriously sad.

Anyone who's willing to create that exaggerated a satire of their own, typical reactions - and have that much fun doing it, could not have meant them sincerely in the first place.

The guy's a pro. A completely professional, dehumanized fraud and one whom only other similarly detached and dehumanized frauds will believe.

Genuine people take their own emotional reactions seriously. Not Glenn Beck, though.

I may be younger than a lot of you dumb fuckers (esp. the amoral robot DBQ) but I stand by the quality of these entirely uncontroversial observations.

My explanations wouldn't seem so arrogant if you didn't reach so far down into your own crap bags for worthless ideas. Try a little harder and maybe you might come up with a superior thought of your own every now and then.

In the meantime, your mediocrity is not as impressive as you believe it to be - as satisfied with it as you are.

"My explanations wouldn't seem so arrogant if you didn't reach so far down into your own crap bags for worthless ideas. Try a little harder and maybe you might come up with a superior thought of your own every now and then.

In the meantime, your mediocrity is not as impressive as you believe it to be - as satisfied with it as you are."

lol nobody accused you of being arrogant. Your the poker player that's given the rest of the table a tell.

It's okay to admit your error, that you jumped on some "fact" without properly assessing it's content. The truth will only make you smarter, so why insist on dumbing yourself down?

Christopher, I appreciate you taking me to task and challenging me on this. I should have made a bigger deal of the specific context in the video. But I just can't believe that someone who is willing to go to such extremes satirizing what on other occasions are his own regular, displays of what strike the rest of us as very unusual or extreme emotional displays, is not acting as much as he is genuinely emoting.

Seriously. The guy gets paid very well for this schtick. Don't you think it's at all possible that Glenn Beck's become so accustomed to crying on cue that it's not always as genuine as it is when prompted by a cold remedy?

It works the other way around? You have to have intelligence in order to declare it?

You're statement doesn't seem to make any sense. Even an drooling idiot can claim to be intelligent.

Can you explain what you just typed?

It was just a quick response to Alex. Yes, anyone can declare anything. I realize in inverting his statement I turned a conditional into a straightforward declaration. But that was rhetorical. Of course someone can claim intelligence without having it - as easily as they can correctly claim having the intelligence they do possess.

It was a challenge to Alex's emphasis on appearances and possibilities. I'm not 100% right but neither am I as out in left field as many allege, and oftentimes I am scorned for making a sensible proposition while committing the sin of it not being an obvious one.

But I just can't believe that someone who is willing to go to such extremes satirizing what on regular occasions strike the rest of us as very unusual or extreme emotional displays, is not acting as often as he is genuinely emoting.

That someone actually pays this man to write makes me feel better about spending so much of my workday bored on the internet. In that sense, he provides a valuable public service. And only in that sense.